Stock Market & Financial Investment News

On The Fly: Analyst Initiation SummaryToday's noteworthy initiations include: FireEye (FEYE) initiated with an Outperform at William Blair... Marlin Business (MRLN) coverage resumed with an Outperform at JMP Securities... Philip Morris (PM) initiated with a Neutral at Exane BNP Paribas... Proofpoint (PFPT) initiated with an Outperform at William Blair... SolarCity (SCTY) initiated with a Buy at Deutsche Bank... SunPower (SPWR) initiated with an Overweight at JPMorgan... Telecom Italia (TI) initiated with a Hold at Jefferies... Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD) initiated with an Outperform at CLSA... Sanderson Farms (SAFM) initiated with an Outperform at CLSA... Twitter (TWTR) initiated with a $70 price target at Telsey Advisory... StoneCastle (BANX) initiated with an Outperform at Oppenheimer... Vipshop (VIPS) initiated with a Buy at BofA/Merrill.

News For FEYE;MRLN;PM;PFPT;SCTY;SPWR;TI;SAFM;BWLD;TWTR;BANX;VIPS From The Last 14 Days

Earnings Watch: Visa reports after 'top pick' mention by BernsteinVisa (V) is expected to report third quarter results after the close on July 23, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 pm ET. Visa is a global payments technology company. EXPECTATIONS: Analysts are looking for earnings per share of 59c on revenue of $3.36B. EPS consensus ranges 54c-65c on a revenue range of $3.32B-$3.41B, according to First Call. LAST QUARTER: On April 30, Visa reported second quarter EPS of 63c against expectations for 62c, and reported revenue of $3.41B versus estimates of $3.34B. During its quarterly conference call, the company noted that "we're now looking at Q3 fully diluted EPS being 6c-8c lower than analyst's current expectations," adding that results are likely to be pressured by higher client incentives. Visa executives also disclosed expectations for a "meaningful step-up" in Q3 expense growth, with a number of marketing and technology initiatives having shifted towards the latter half of the year. PEERS: American Express (AXP) reported quarterly earnings after the close on July 22, with earnings above consensus estimates but revenue somewhat below expectations, noting a "significant" impact from a stronger U.S. dollar on international operations. NEWS: On May 8, Bloomberg reported that Visa was in preliminary talks to acquire Visa Europe for $15B-$20B, according to sources. On June 3, Visa and FireEye (FEYE) announced a strategic partnership to co-develop tools and services to protect against cyber attacks targeting payment data. On June 5, the Wall Street Journal reported that, due to Visa and MasterCard (MA) having finalized their card-security technology, Google's (GOOG) Android Pay will not be earning any transaction fees from credit-card issuers, and on June 17, Reuters reported that a U.S. appeals court affirmed that American Express can no longer block businesses from steering customers towards competitor cards, such as those of Visa. STREET RESEARCH: On May 19, Pacific Crest's Josh Beck shifted his preference to MasterCard from Visa, though he noted that the shift was simply due to Visa's outperformance over the past year. On May 20, Bernstein noted that the risk/reward ratio for both Visa and MasterCard looks positive, with the companies offering secular growth, "compelling" business models, and modest risk. More recently on July 14, Bernstein named Visa among its "Vintage Values 2016" list, citing the company's U.S. acquirer price increase and expectations that the Visa Europe put option will be exercised this year. PRICE ACTION: Shares of Visa have fallen just under 1% to $71.41 ahead of Thursday's earnings report.

SunPower to build 100 MW solar power plant for NV Energy SunPower has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with NV Energy to build a 100 MW solar photovoltaic power plant planned for construction in the Eldorado Valley of Boulder City, Nevada. The project is expected to create approximately 200 jobs during construction, which is anticipated to commence before the end of 2015, with commercial operation planned in 2016. SunPower acquired the project from KOMIPO America earlier this year.

Buffalo Wild Wings August volatility elevated into Q2 and outlook Buffalo Wild Wings August call option implied volatility is at 41, September is at 31; compared to its 52-week range of 21 to 48, suggesting large near term price movement into the expected release of Q2 results on July 28.

Dominion and SunPower partner to supply solar power to New Jersey homeownersDominion (D) subsidiary Dominion Retail and SunPower (SPWR) announced a collaboration of the two companies to offer SunPower solar power systems to New Jersey homeowners. Dominion will provide program details to residents through a marketing campaign scheduled to begin this summer.

Herbalife requests user information from Twitter, Reuters reportsHerbalife (HLF) has filed a petition seeking information from Twitter (TWTR) to find an anonymous user who posted defamatory tweets against Herbalife, Reuters reports. Herbalife wants Twitter to provide IP addresses as well as account details of the user so that the company can pursue legal action, the report says. Reference Link

On The Fly: Top stock stories at middayStocks on Wall Street were slightly higher at midday in the first trading day of a week that will be light on domestic economic data but heavy on earnings reports. Investors will be receiving profit reports from about 25% of the companies on the S&P 500 this week, making this the highest volume earnings week of this season. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., no major data was released. In Europe, Greece reopened its banks three weeks after closing as the country worked out another bailout agreement. The country announced it has started the process of paying off its creditors, including the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, with a bridge loan it just received. COMPANY NEWS: Lockheed Martin (LMT) agreed to buy the Sikorsky Aircraft business from United Technologies (UTX) for $9B, noting the price is "effectively reduced" to $7.1B after taking into account tax benefits resulting from the transaction. Shares of Lockheed, which also reported better than expected second quarter results and increased its fiscal year guidance, gained nearly 2% after the Sikorsky announcement and saying it will conduct a strategic review of its government IT infrastructure services business and technical services business... Shares of Morgan Stanley (MS) shares were little changed near noon after the bank reported earnings and revenue, excluding certain adjustments, that topped analysts' consensus forecasts... SunEdison (SUNE) announced a deal to acquire Vivint Solar (VSLR) for approximately $2.2B, payable in a combination of cash, shares of SunEdison common stock and SunEdison convertible notes. In connection with the proposed acquisition of Vivint Solar, SunEdison has entered into a definitive purchase agreement with a subsidiary of TerraForm Power (TERP) which, concurrently with the completion of SunEdison's acquisition of Vivint, will acquire Vivint Solar's rooftop solar portfolio, consisting of 523 MW expected to be installed by year-end 2015, for $922M in cash. Shares of Vivint rose 44% following the announcement, while SunEdison's stock gained 4% and TerraForm dropped 3%. Fellow residential solar installer SolarCity (SCTY), which is backed by Tesla's (TSLA) Elon Musk, rose 7% following the deal in the space. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the notable gainers was Exelixis (EXEL), which rallied 43% after the company reported that a study of cabozantinib in metastatic renal cell carcinoma met its primary endpoint of significant improvement in progression-free survival. The shares were indicated to rise even more in early pre-market trading, but lost some of their gains after Bristol-Myers (BMY) announced that its Opdivo study was stopped early after showing superior overall survival in a Phase 3 study of previously treated patients with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Bristol-Myers rose a bit less than 1% to trade near $70 per share after its own announcement. Also higher was PayPal (PYPL), which gained more than 5.5% in its first day of trading after being spun out of eBay (EBAY). Meanwhile, eBay shares rose over 2%. Cal-Maine Foods (CALM) dropped 8% after posting lower than expected sales and profits in its fourth quarter and warning that while it should have an adequate supply of its primary feed ingredients, the company expects that prices will be "volatile" in the year ahead. Also lower were shares of several gold miners, including Barrick Gold (ABX) and Newmont Mining (NEM), which each fell about 11%, as gold prices declined about 2% near midday. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 31.66, or 0.18%, to 18,118.11, the Nasdaq was up 9.81, or 0.19%, to 5,219.96, and the S&P 500 was up 2.82, or 0.13%, to 2,129.46.